The Funny Story Pic

Alyssa recommended that I post the commy photo shot that I had to take my shirt off to get. The shirt is not mine.... although I kinda wish it were.

Funny Story

Well, now that DA and I are students, we had to get student visas instead of travel visas. One of our American friends who has been here for a while took us to the Foreign Affairs Bureau to apply for them. After the official spent 5 solid minutes analyzing our passports and our current visas, he looked up at us with his best intimidating look and asked in Chinese, “Why did you decide to come here now to study? It is an odd time of the semester to begin school.” Thankfully the guy we were with has dealt with these guys many, many times and simply answered, “Right now the weather is very beautiful”..... Satisfied with his answer the official gave us the applications and told us that we needed to go take pictures for the application. This is where the real fun begins.....

The three of us walk down to a nearby Kodak photo shop and tell the workers that we needed a picture taken of each of us for visa applications. I was delighted by how serious these guys take their job. First of all they seem uptight and high-strung anyways, but they looked at me and told me that I could not take a picture today because my shirt was too light. Baffled by his demand we insisted that it was okay, but he would not budge. To take a picture I had to have a darker shirt. The man then looked at our American friend (who was wearing a dark shirt), and told him that he needed to change shirts with me for us to take the picture today. Again, the seriousness of these guys who run a photo booth was hilarious. We all loose control and laugh hysterically and I begin to take off my shirt to expose my bare skin to the world and change shirts with our friend. After this I stand in front of the camera and the photographer then poses me to his liking with the most serious face imaginable. All this for a little 1x2 inch, $2.50 picture. And I can honestly say that a day hasn’t gone by where something like this has happened.

LH

Another Page turned..

Wow, have things been crazy the past few weeks. We finally got moved into our own apartment and will be here only temporarily. We are in a very beautiful city. It is not your typical Asian city. One thing that sticks out to me as the most peculiar is the fact that this relatively small city (350,000ish people) has a Super Wal-Mart! That would be like Tulia, Texas or Slaton, Texas having its own Super Wal-Mart. Not only does it have its own Wal-Mart, but also a KFC and a McDonald’s! The reason this small town gets all these super nice hookups (American fast food is considered rich people cuisine) is because the city is home to the largest cigarette factory in this country. It is amazing the money they have put into this town to make it as clean and beautiful as they have. I never thought I would be thankful for a cigarette factory, but I can actually say that I am. As I type I am sitting on our bed with the windows open and a crisp breeze is blowing through the house with the aroma of fresh tobacco lingering therein. It is truly pleasant.

We will hopefully begin language school soon and will be studying 15-18 hours a week with 24 hours a week of personal study time. As for the next two months this is our ‘job’.

During these somewhat interesting days it is essential that we let the truth we know and love direct our emotions and our wills. I know the JC left the comforts of his eternal home to come down and live in a dirty, sin-filled world, and die here so that his people can be clean in our Father’s eyes for eternity. Not that Asia is any more or less sin-filled than America, but for us it is in many ways less comfortable. (i.e. last night when I was showering I dropped the bar of soap down the squatty, which is located directly under the shower head, and had to dig it our with some kitchen utensils. Don’t worry, we got a new bar of soap.) Most days the battle for us is simply remembering what he did and surrendering our lives to him and rejoicing that we are able to experience slight discomfort ultimately for his glory. And at the end of the day there can be much rejoicing.

LH

Chinglish #1

They call me the blunderer.

Today was my first time to use public lavatories. All went well until I left the stall and realized I was in the women's stall. Oops.

Unexpected Swankiness

As most of you know my time thus far in CN has been nothing short of atypical. I have been constantly on the move and and right now am sitting in an unbelievably swank coffee shop in an incredibly swank CN city. I have a couple of funny stories, but true to form, no pictures.

The city we were planning on living in (access denied) is growing like crazy. Hotels going up everywhere, stadiums being erected for some big national of some famous mountain that is unlucky enough to be in this cities region. But the clincher for me that this town has made it was the name on one very special hotel. The Jim Carrey Hotel. Thats right you know that a glorified village has finally grown into a full blown city when you have a hotel named after the most famous comedian in America. Not to mention that you are something big if you have hotel named after you in some remote city. Something to shoot for I guess.

The other day I was walking to a friends home and was passing this elderly man. As he saw me he reached out his wrinkled hand which was holding a piece of paper and slapped me with it! I was shocked. What do you do with that? I laughed it on and moved on. I have experienced many run ins with utterly irrational people, although this was the funniest. Obviously this city is not used to seeing foreigners.

Lastly, me and a friend went to an Indian restaurant in the swank city we are staying in right now (not the one spoken of previously). It is very common for service people to wear name tags with their CN names and their 'English' names written below it. Well I peered over at our waitress and saw that we were being served dinner by a lady named Fish. I had a good laugh and enjoyed my food.

Anyways. DA and I would love to hear from you. Expect a lengthy update from us in the soon future. If you are not getting our updates email me at logan.heinrich@pobox.com and I will get you on the list.

Logan

Playing in HK

Considering the demands for a new blog post (thanks Liz), and the fact that I'm trying to stay up late enough tonight to beat jet lag (went to bed at 830 last night), I'm going to post.  

While in HK, I've seen some interesting things.  It would be fun to show you pictures, but Logan currently has the camera and is also currently in country.  So...I'll try to paint a picture w/ words if at all possible.

I would have probably taken a picture of all the men w/ their newspapers around lunch today.  Across from our flat there is a multi-story shopping center, and on the second story sidewalk today, the whole length of rail for as far as I could see down was lined w/ men reading newspapers.  It was interesting.  Men of all ages, just sitting or standing there w/ newspapers.  

Or maybe I would have taken a picture of the Filipino ladies chatting and eating in the area between our flat and the above mentioned shopping center.  HK has a labor law that states that live-in household help is required to leave their employers' homes on Sunday from 8-5 to ensure rest and privacy for the employer families.  Almost all the household help ladies are Filipino, and so on Sundays they gather in parks or in the mall, or just wherever, and hang out together because they can't be in the homes that they live and work in.  

Maybe instead of a picture, I could tell you about how crowded the mall was yesterday...and how I was pushing the stroller.  And that while pushing said stroller, a young lady cut me off and I, unable to stop the stroller and myself w/o hindering the flow of traffic behind me (which was probably the same amount of people as the population of Silverton--where I'm from), and also out of a bit of spite (maybe), continued moving and hit her straight in the heel/back of her leg.  Which caused her to jump a bit, but other than that she was so not phased by it.  And since she didn't have a problem w/ cutting me off, I wasn't convicted about it at all!  (If you read this Kayla, that statement was for you.)

And I might show you or tell you about the subway...and how I absolutely love it!

Or about how there are so many buildings here that you can rarely see the sky unless you are looking straight up.  Although, there are some super cool parks here...one we went to yesterday had a huge playground, lots of walking paths, tons of big trees and flowers (technically not a botanical garden, but absolutely beautiful!), and even an aviary.  

So, time in HK has been fun.  Its warm and humid and super crowded and sometimes all of those things combined are a bit overwhelming...but all in all, things are good.  And hey, its now 9:45, and I can justify going to bed.

Love,

da

we love to travel w/ american airlines....

So...Logan already posted this morning about the delay in Lbk....an hour we waited for our flight.  When we got to DFW, all was well b/c we still had about an hour to change terminals, go to the bathroom, eat lunch, get coffee, and then sit for 15 minutes before boarding.  We even got to board in the first group this time!  It was awesome....until they informed us that we would be waiting to take off for another 2 hours...due to something in Chicago....weather, or something.  We had the option to get off the plane, but we'd have to take all the carry on luggage w/ us, and we (I) didn't want to carry 3 carry ons and a mandolin off the plane and then back on.  When we finally left the gate 2 hours after we had boarded, we then sat at the end of the runway for another 20 minutes...and I don't honestly know remember why.

Finally, we get into Chicago, all of our luggage arrives, and then we hire a shuttle to take us to our hotel.  A little bit costly, and a little bit of a drive, but we were able to finally get to our hotel...about 3 hours after I thought we would be here.  Now it is nearly 11:00 pm (way past my bedtime), but we just ate deep dish, real Chicago style pizza, and I'm stuffed....and not too ready for bed.

Anyways, really all of that is to say that Logan and I, when flying together, have never had a trip go off w/o a hitch.  We either miss flights, I get sick, or there are "hazardous materials" on the plane (read previous post.)  You seriously don't want to fly w/ us.  

Oh well, all's well that ends well...or something like that.  We are looking forward to another fun day of flying tomorrow!  :)

love, 

da

Lubbock International Airport... Delayed

Well we are sitting in our favorite spot in Lubbock International Airport. Our flight was delayed 40 min. Hopefully this will not turn into a 9 hour wait like it did the first time we took this journey.

I love how safe flying american is. I think I heard that they had to delay the flight because it was just too dang sunny outside. I hear that reflective glares off the windshield of the plain could result in an emergency landing. I recall another time when we boarded a plane and an announcement came over the loud speaker that 'hazardous material' has leaked in the cargo part of the plain. After about an hour of waiting for the CIA or someone to clean it up and analyze it we found out that it was shampoo. Wow, who knows what that could have resulted in if we had actually taken off!

Anyways. We are doing well. Father gave us both good rest last night. We look forward to hearing from all of you.

Why driving is better than flying....

As many of you know, we finished our training on March 26 and now have about a week and a half between Silverton and Lubbock before flying out.

Logan and I decided in January that driving to Virginia would be worth it if we got to see a few people and places along the way there and back. On our way home to Texas, our first stop was in Louisville, Kentucky, to visit Southern Seminary and few friends who are there. This is where we definitely want to go to school in a few years!

After leaving Louisville, we traveled down to Mammoth Cave National Park. As a third grader, I had to do a report on a national park of my choice, and randomly selected Mammoth Cave. As a result, I have always wanted to visit the cave. I thoroughly enjoyed our two hour tour of only a small portion of the world's longest cave. If you are ever in the area, I would recommend it. It isn't a really "flashy" cave w/ stalactites and stalagmites, but something about walking down to a point 200 feet below the surface is slightly amazing.

Our next destination was Dayton, TN, where we stayed w/ friends Hayden and Callie, who graciously opened their home again to us. (We stayed w/ them on the way to VA.) On Monday night, we made the quick trip to Chattanooga to attend a Punch Brothers concert....a delightful mix of mostly bluegrass w/ a hint of classical and jazz. We had so much fun! Check them out. I think you will enjoy them.

After that, we had a 13 hour drive to OK City, spent the night there, and then continued on to Silverton. We'll spend a few days here w/ my parents and then go to Lubbock to see friends there and repack all of our 8 bags. We should have fun...if not repacking then w/ friends and family there!